John 1:35-51

John 1:35-51

The disciples followed Jesus with no doubt and they trusted him, us as a children of God we should trust our Lord and follow him!!

John the Baptist pointed two of his disciples to Jesus and they started to follow Jesus. Andrew was one of the two and he was Simon Peter’s brother. Andrew introduced Jesus to Simon Peter and brought him to Jesus. Let’s point people towards Jesus, introduce Jesus, and bring them to Jesus.

When Jesus saw Nathaniel he said,”Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” God knows who we are, we cannot act, or hide anything from God. Live a life to receive a good report from God.

It took Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathanael just one encounter with Jesus to believe and accept that he was the Messiah. At the same time there were a lot of Jewish leaders, more knowledgeable than them in the scriptures, who couldn’t believe in Jesus. Sometimes our knowledge could be a hinderance to our faith. A sensitive heart matters.

John points Jesus to his disciples. John lets them go.Andrew and the other disciple obeys Jesus.
Andrew introduces Jesus to Peter and Peter obeys.
Jesus calls Peter by name.
Jesus calls Philip. Philip obeys and follows Jesus. Philip tells Nathaniel about Jesus.
Nathaniel questions but agrees to go and see.
Jesus testifies about Nathaniel.
What is the Character so special in Nathaniel?
I wish Jesus can testify about us like that.

John 1:51 Verily verily I say unto to you, hereafter Ye shall see the heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man. Jesus opens up the relationship between God and man and also the disciples are about to witness the relation between Jesus and the Father in person in the upcoming days.

(v51) …you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of God.Jesus is the Way to God, Jesus is the Truth (Word), Jesus is the Life to get eternal life. Let’s just “Follow” Jesus by obeying to His words.

Nathanael believed that Jesus was the Messiah. We should believe in what Jesus tells us to do.

The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and brought him to Jesus. Andrew didn’t go alone to be the disciple of Jesus, he wanted his brother too to be his disciple.Philip found Nathanael and said “Come and see” and brought him to Jesus.

Are we taking any measures to bring more people to be the disciples of Jesus or limiting ourselves by just preaching the theology among ourselves/the Christians alone???

We need to invite more people to “Come and see ” and to follow Jesus.

The song ” He knows you” came to my mind as I read about Jesus talking to Peter, Nathaniel … Very comforting thought

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?1. Nate is your typical modern person. He is skeptical and too quick to conclude. He knows good from only certain places. “Those guys over there” what good thing can come out of them? To deal with such a person all we can do is “Come and see”. Can anything good come out of TUCC ? come and see ( has a ring to it !) should be our only message.
2. Jesus appreciate Nate’s openness but also says that he knows his private life which converts him to be a believer in an instant.
3. But Jesus is saying .. hey slow down. You are still too quick to jump to conclusions. You have no idea what else I am going to do. Or even who I am.
This means that Jesus says to us: You thought I came to your life to solve a problem here and fix that issue there. Sure. That will be taken care of. But this is a lifelong relationship until you see who I really am. Until you see my life, my death, my resurrection, until you see the Angels ascending and descending on me, your understanding will be partial.

The first disciples accepted Jesus as Lamb of God, Son of God without questioning Jesus. But in our life sometimes we question God and his plan. When they saw Jesus they didn’t see him as normal person, may be their spirit identified Him as the son of God. Can non-Christians identify as children of God and move towards Jesus?

They heard, seen, met, accepted, followed and shared.Even now many people hear about Jesus. Many of us seen Jesus in may different ways. Meeting Him, Accepting Him as savior, continuously following Him till the end and sharing the good news through our experience to others are the very important steps I have learned reading this passage. They also stayed with Him!

Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!. Amazing testimony, we all need to be like Nathaniel where Jesus can say the same about us. The assumption is that he has not only led a pure life but has been doing some good deeds under the fig tree, that only God knew and when Jesus pointed it out.. it was a spark moment for him to glorify and acknowledge God